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Gubernatorial informality
GOVERNOR RAMAMOHAN Rao has always struck me as being perhaps the most relaxed and informal Governor Tamil Nadu has ever had. And it is not only because of the bush shirts and slacks he wears, almost asking to be accompanied by slippers. Rather, it's because of the way he blends with any audience, virtually chatting with it informally when he addresses it. On two recent occasions, I was struck by this informality.
The first was on the occasion of the local release of Anup Kumar's The Joy of Cancer, the story of how a young public relations man coped with years of cancer and is now coping with its recurrence. Releasing the book, Governor Rao mentioned that usually people wrote him long letters inviting him to such occasions and often followed them up by calling on him in person. This was the first time he had received an invitation by email - and he couldn't resist it or the informal brief it has contained. Particularly as it had struck a chord, reminding him of an earlier book he had discovered while his father was in Vellore's CMC Hospital: Dorothy Clarke Wilson's Take My Hand had narrated how Dr. Mary Varghese had coped with paraplegia after a car accident in the early 1950s, on the way to `Roadside' - the hospital's famous rural clinic.
Governor Rao's informality was even more on view at the Satyamurti Centre of Democratic Studies' national seminar on `Responding to Terrorism: Dilemmas of Democratic and Developing Societies'. Not only did he drop in at the inaugural function - he was to preside only at the valedictory function - but stayed on through most of the morning, seated amongst the participants and taking in every word. Being a former Director General of Police of Andhra Pradesh, he was no doubt among many friends from the Armed Services, Police and Civil Service, but to consider himself a fellow participant is as informal as a Governor can get. He may not have contributed publicly on that first day, but that he had taken it all in was obvious when he spoke the next evening, addressing all the points that had been made during the deliberations, candidly drawing from his long experience in the field against the People's War Groups.
Apart from this informality of the Governor's address and the participatory nature of it, the valedictory function was rather unique, with two Governors on the dais, both former Heads of Police and both with long experience in insurgency areas. That both are excellent communicators made the final session the highlight of a seminar which had three other heads of police, a couple of heads of the C.B.I., more than a few generals and the other senior army officers and several former Civilians. Academicians and journalists represented civil society; civil rights activists, lawyers and jurists were, however, conspicuous by their absence.
S.MUTTHIAH
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